IT Concepts

IT concepts encompass the foundational principles and technologies that support modern information systems. This includes networking, databases, operating systems, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Categories:

Backup and Recovery

IT Concepts

Backup and recovery protects identity mappings, access policies and audit trails so your workloads can reauthenticate after a failure.

Workload API

IT Concepts

The Workload API is the local interface defined by the SPIFFE specification through which workloads retrieve their SVIDs from a SPIRE agent. It operates over a Unix domain socket and requires no authentication from the calling workload, relying instead on kernel-level process inspection to verify identity before returning credentials. By surfacing identity through a standard local API, SPIFFE allows workloads to obtain and rotate credentials automatically without embedding secrets in configuration or code.

SPIRE Server

IT Concepts

The SPIRE server is the central authority in a SPIRE deployment responsible for managing the trust domain, validating node attestations from SPIRE agents, and issuing signed SVIDs to attested workloads. It maintains the registry of workload selector rules that define which workloads are entitled to which identities. In production environments, the SPIRE server is a critical piece of security infrastructure and is typically deployed with high availability to avoid becoming a bottleneck for workload authentication.

SPIRE Agent

IT Concepts

A SPIRE agent is the component of the SPIRE system that runs on each node and acts as the local identity intermediary for workloads. It performs workload attestation, caches SVIDs on behalf of local workloads, and exposes the SPIFFE Workload API so workloads can retrieve their credentials without directly contacting the SPIRE server. The agent is what makes SPIFFE-based identity transparent to workloads and removes the need for application code changes.

eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter)

IT Concepts

eBPF is a Linux kernel technology that allows programs to run sandboxed logic in the kernel without modifying kernel source code or loading kernel modules. In workload identity and security, eBPF enables deep network and process observability, policy enforcement, and identity-aware controls at the infrastructure level with minimal performance overhead. It is foundational to modern proxyless architectures that enforce zero trust policies without requiring a sidecar proxy in every workload.

Service Mesh

IT Concepts

A service mesh is an infrastructure layer that manages and secures communication between microservices and workloads within a distributed application. It handles mutual authentication (mTLS), traffic routing, observability, and policy enforcement at the network level without requiring changes to application code. For workload identity, service meshes provide a control plane where authentication and authorization decisions can be made consistently across all service-to-service interactions in a cluster or multi-cloud environment.

Identity Provider (IdP)

IT Concepts

An Identity Provider (IdP) is a trusted system that authenticates users or workloads and issues cryptographically signed tokens or assertions that enable access to applications and services across federated environments. For workload contexts, IdPs establish trust through runtime environment attestation and issue short-lived, automatically-rotated cryptographic credentials using protocols like OpenID Connect (OIDC) and SAML 2.0.

High Availability (HA)

IT Concepts

High Availability (HA) is a system design approach that ensures a specific degree of operational continuity during a given time period, typically measured in uptime percentages such as 99.9% or 99.99%. In workload identity and access management systems, HA ensures that authentication, authorization, and credential issuance services remain accessible even during infrastructure failures, network disruptions, or regional outages.

CFIUS

IT Concepts

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is a government committee that reviews foreign investments in U.S. businesses. Its job is to assess any potential national security risks. CFIUS has the power to recommend blocking a transaction, imposing strict security conditions, or even forcing completed deals to be reversed if they threaten critical infrastructure, sensitive technology, or U.S. citizens’ personal data.

Browser Extension

IT Concepts

A browser extension is a software module that adds specific features or functionality to a web browser. Extensions can modify browser behavior, interact with web pages, manipulate content, and integrate with external services. They range from popular password managers and ad blockers to specialized developer tools, productivity applications, and AI agent interfaces that enable LLM-powered assistance directly in the browser.